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World War II Database. In relation to the effect of this situation on Soviet-German relations, A. At the talks, Molotov, the Soviet Foreign Minister, told Hitler that the Soviet Union considered the Straits vital to her security and wanted to give Bulgaria, the country nearest the Straits, a guarantee similar to that given by Germany to Romania.
Hitler felt suspicious of such a move and asked if Bulgaria had asked for such a guarantee. The Soviet demands showed the Germans that there could be no further cooperation with the Soviet Union.
Like the Soviet Union, Germany had no intention of sharing the Straits with anyone. Three weeks after the Soviet minister left Berlin, Hitler made his final order and demanded preparation for Operation Barbarossa. Even though the Soviet Union was in disagreement with the West, and had a preliminary agreement with the Nazis, it was obvious from the beginning that the German-Soviet partnership was doomed to fail soon or later.
Then he stood in his bed and started laughing continuously for nearly ten minutes. They were well deserved. Turkey had just managed to avert the biggest menace waiting at her doorstep. Having examined Turkish policy in the initial phases of the war, let us now turn to comment on how Turkey managed to keep Germany out of her borders by adopting a pro-German attitude between and In that way, possible British help for the Soviets would have been blocked.
Following long negotiations, Hitler achieved what he wanted and a Turco-German neutrality pact was signed on 18 June Moreover, Turkey also agreed to supply Germany with chromium, a critical raw material used in weaponry manufacture, for three consecutive years. Even after this deal on neutrality, Hitler continued to attach special importance to potential Turkish cooperation on various other matters. The attitude of the Turkish politicians and the public towards the Germans in those days appears to be a mixed one.
They made it clear that they expected a total defeat of the Soviet Union, which was their sincere desire. There was also feeling in the Assembly that if it was not too late, a new opening should be looked for in the direction of Germany.
Turkey, it was said, should make use of her unique strategic position in this new European balance. Kazim Karabekir maintained the need for a Turkish-German agreement in the face of a mutual Soviet danger. He said this did not mean the scrapping of the Anglo-Turkish alliance but a realistic appreciation of what other possibilities existed which could combine with it to safeguard Turkey.
There was also a general feeling amongst some Turkish leaders that it was not such a bad thing if Britain were weakened. Barutcu quotes Rauf Orbay as saying that he hoped that the Allied forces in Belgium would be made prisoner. The British will not be beaten. There is no doubt that an Empire capable of raising 45 million soldiers will gain the final victory.
But the more they are weakened beforehand the better it is for us. If they win an outright victory, we are also in trouble. Let them come to our level, where they will have to ask our views, where they will need our soldiers and our military advice.
Yes, let them fall prisoner in Belgium. Pan-Turkism or Touranizm was scrapped by Kemal Ataturk as an ideology. Yet, the pan-Turkic emotions or the nostalgia for a united Turkic world had been stimulated by the Germans since the beginning of their attack on the Soviet Union to tempt the Turkish government to take arms on their side.
However, such tricks did not work at all on Ismet Inonu, the national chief, who was the most important decision-maker of that time as the president of the republic. The effect of the wave of Turkism began to be visible in domestic politics too.
Some racist policies in the economic field were inaugurated. Of all these, the Varlik Vergisi Kanunu wealth tax had the greatest repercussions. Adopted on 11 November , the law was aimed at non-Muslim minorities and demanded high amounts of payment in the form of wealth tax in a very short time. Those who failed to pay their debts within the permitted time were sent to labor camps.
About 21 people died in such camps. The nineteen years that followed the proclamation of the modern Turkish republic could not erode their control. From that moment onwards, the Anglo-American front came up with the idea of launching a Balkan invasion through Turkey and thus weakening the German army with the creation of a second front in Europe.
This once again increased pressure on the Inonu administration. Nevertheless, on each occasion the view that the second front had to be opened through Normandy in Western Europe prevailed amongst the other allies. At the preliminary talks that preceded the first Cairo Conference the Turkish side rejected the demand for British bases on her soil, arguing that this would inevitably lead to a war with Germany.
Once again, the diplomats argued that Turkey did not have the adequate resources to fight a major war and reiterated demands for increased weapons supply. As part of their delaying strategy, they gave Churchill a long list of requested military machinery which could take several years to supply.
Consensus was reached that adequate aid could not be delivered on time. By then, the Soviets reached a position which enabled them to eliminate the Nazi forces on their territory and the last thing Stalin wanted to see was American and British soldiers on Balkan territories.
The Normandy invasion, which began on 6 June , implied that the end of the war in the old continent was approaching. As Turkey was approaching closer to the Allies in the second half of , it felt it necessary to ban pro-German Turanist activities and to take some measures to exclude those people who were known as Nazi sympathizers from official posts, in order particularly to appease the Soviet Union. Numan Menemencioglu, the Foreign Affairs Minister, shared the same fate.
In May , the two open letters from a leading pan-Turkist, Nihal Atsiz, that accused the Saracoglu government of being corrupt, gave a leading opportunity to the government to arrest all leading figures of Turkism. This was achieved on 2 August. Their main aim was to reach important decisions on the future world order. One point on which consensus was reached was that only states at war with Japan and Germany as of 1 March would be invited to the San Francisco Conference setting up the United Nations.
Having also severed her links with Japan on 6 January, Turkey officially declared war on the Axis powers on 23 February. The Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact of August prompted Turkey to sign a treaty of mutual assistance with Britain and France in October.
Hedging its bets, the government concluded a nonaggression treaty with Nazi Germany on 18 June , just four days before the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union. The early military successes of the Axis forces contributed to increased pro-German sentiment, even in some official circles.
However, Inonu seems never to have wavered from his position that the Axis powers could not win the war.
Despite German pressure, Turkey at no time permitted the passage of Axis troops, ships, or aircraft through or over Turkey and its waters, and the Montreux Convention was scrupulously enforced in the straits.
Turkey thereby became one of the fifty-one original members of the world organization. This was even though many of her neighbors were under enemy occupation. In spite of this fact, there were many who disapproved of his stand.
Still, Turkey felt politically isolated at the end of the war. When Stalin issued an ultimatum demanding several bases along the Straits as well as the return of certain provinces in eastern Turkey, Britain and the US did not offer any form of help or support for a while.
Britain was on the verge of bankruptcy and could no longer provide Turkey with monetary aid. The power vacuum was finally filled by the US, which, under the Truman Doctrine, started offering monetary and military aid to avert the risk of Turkey falling under communist control. Following these developments Turkey lost the autonomy in the field of foreign policy that it had enjoyed since the foundation of the modern republic.
Turkey could no longer avoid the total domination of any one power over her by using one rival power against another. The country was firmly attached to the western camp and came within the American sphere of influence. This significantly tilted the balance of power in the Aegean against Turkey and planted the seeds of renewed Greco-Turkish enmity — something that had been dormant after the peace treaty signed in Lausanne.
Besides, Turkey lost the chance to have an increased bargaining power when the conditions leading to the independence of Cyprus issue was negotiated with Britain a decade later. The Western-imposed solution did not work and led to a civil war between the local Turks and the Greeks. The general belief is that the Allied military protection offered was not sufficient for Turkey to stand up to Germany alone. Were they worth the lives of possibly thousands of Turkish citizens?
If Ataturk had remained president during this era could he have secured a better deal from the Allies and still manage to remain neutral? This is something for the reader to decide in view of what has been portrayed above. Ottoman History Ottoman History. Create new account Request new password.
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